Five big trends to drive next bull markets

From clean energy to population shift and emerging business, experts see opportunities and take tips from last recession

The US Treasury's plan to buy up $100 billion (£70 billion) of "toxic" mortgage assets from banks helped to push the FTSE 100 index up by almost 3% early last week. Although it then slipped to close at 3,899, big-name fund managers such as Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford and Anthony Bolton of Fidelity believe we are now through the worst.

Woodford, whose Equity Income and High Income funds have fallen 17% over the year to February, compared with a 33% drop in the markets, said: "I still believe . . . that we have found a bottom for the UK market and indeed for Wall Street, but again I would caution that that doesn't mean that all share prices are going to go up from here."

Some investors are even backing banks again. The sector has jumped nearly 40% since March 6 after positive trading statements from America's Citigroup and Barclays.